Thursday, 13 July 2017

In An Ythrian Ship II

Quetlan, the sun of Ythri, is yellower than Sol. In the Ythrian ship, Gaiian, Nicholas van Rijn keeps his quarters at Earth-standard illumination whereas his granddaughter, Coya Conyon, does not. Because of his spacefaring experiences, van Rijn is "...used to abrupt transitions..." (p. 381) whereas Coya blinks when she enters his luxurious stateroom. She also coughs in the tobacco haze of his churchwarden pipe. I did not know that "churchwarden meant "long-stemmed" until I googled it. Which other Poul Anderson character smokes a churchwarden? Van Rijn has hired the Gaiian for a perilous journey and imposes his enormous presence on its internal environment. He sprawls with the pipe in one hand and a two-litre tankard in the other. A spout at his elbow gives instant refills. The reader vicariously enjoys both van Rijn's hedonism and the mysterious danger that Gaiian approaches. We know that great events are afoot for van Rijn and Technic civilization.